This is a non-provisional of application No. 62/468,737 filed Mar. 8, 2017. The entire disclosure of the prior application is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Variances in heating among and within ovens can result in less than desirable end food products. For example, a food product may be overcooked in some portions, while undercooked in other portions. This is particularly the case when cooking food products of varying thicknesses or sizes. Similarly, adjacent food products in an oven may be overcooked or undercooked. Moreover, it is very difficult to evenly cook a food product that is placed in a conventional oven for cooking directly from a frozen state, especially when the product is asymmetrical, thus requiring additional time and expense to initially thaw the food product.
Conventional ovens that heat a food product by thermal transfer of heat from heated air in the oven to the food product (i.e., by natural or forced air convection) often produce less than desirable characteristics of the end product, such as unevenly cooked, undercooked or overcooked meat, and unevenly cooked, undercooked or burned bakery goods. In conventional ovens, cooking is generally performed by heating air to a desired temperature by way of on/off thermostatic control of a much hotter heating element. Conventional proportionally controlled heating ovens work in a similar manner, but the heating elements are heated proportionally to the load in the oven—e.g., the lower the air and/or food temperature in the oven, the hotter the heating element, and vice versa. However, in all such ovens, temperature differences in the air in the oven can be substantial. The less than optimal uniformity of the heating of the air in conventional ovens can affect the resulting cooked food product. Thus, unless an operator is present to monitor and interrupt or modify the cooking process, the quality of the end food product may be adversely affected. Furthermore, monitoring itself may adversely affect the cooking process or food outcome. The normal practice of opening the oven door during cooking, such as to monitor or stir food or to turn a tray to try to even out browning, slows the cooking or baking process by reducing the temperature in the oven, often by 100° F. or more. Then the timing can easily get away from the oven user. In both on/off and proportionally controlled ovens, this also results in significant increases of heating element temperature. The heating element may become red hot, causing burning of many foods and a spike in oven temperature, and may result in charring of the food and sometimes even smoke damage to the kitchen.
Another aspect of temperature-controlled treatment of meats involves dry aging of meats such as beef, lamb, pork, fowl, game and other meats. For example, most fresh beef is aged (tenderized) for at least a few days, and up to several weeks, to allow enzymes naturally present in the meat to break down muscle tissue, resulting in improved texture and flavor. In these processes, the meat is maintained at a low temperature (e.g., below 40° F., often around 28° F.) to reduce or prevent the growth of bacteria in or on the meat during the aging (tenderizing) process. This process is generally applied to whole carcasses, primal muscles or roasts. Such processes are generally not applied to already-cut steaks or filets.